Perdido 03

Monday, February 17, 2014

New York City Democrats Must Not Vote For Andrew Cuomo

Gov. Cuomo’s re-election strategy is to sacrifice New York City’s
interests, take on Mayor de Blasio and pander to anti-tax and
pro-business sentiments upstate, where he’s politically the weakest,
angry Democrats from the city charge.

Whether it’s Cuomo’s battles with de Blasio over pre-K funding or the
city’s ability to hike the minimum wage on its own, his support for
lower taxes on manufacturers north of the city-oriented MTA region, or
the $1 billion in state funds he plans to pour into Buffalo — stronghold
of Cuomo’s 2010 GOP opponent Carl Paladino — “everything the governor
is doing is about his re-election campaign,’’ a senior legislative
Democrat has told The Post.

“The governor’s polling numbers show he will win the city with a huge
margin. He knows that, he’s told people that, so he doesn’t think he
needs the mayor or city Democrats for political help.

“Every program he has for his re-election is geared to upstate, and
that involves taking money away from the city,’’ the Democrat, an
important de Blasio ally, continued.

The anger of city Democrats is rooted in what is, in effect, a civil
war pitting downstate “progressives’’ or leftist Democrats, who have
strong support from public-employee unions and the union-controlled
Working Families Party, against Cuomo, a small group of moderate upstate
Democrats and, ironically, state Senate Republicans.

Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos has emerged as Cuomo’s chief political
ally at the Capitol, backing the governor in his showdown with de Blasio
even as all Democratic leaders, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver and Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, refuse to do
so.

A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed Cuomo with 76 percent
support among city voters in a matchup against Donald Trump and 70
percent of city voters in a faceoff with Westchester County Executive
Rob Astorino.

But among upstate voters, Cuomo received just 49 percent against
Astorino and 51 percent against Trump. His numbers in the Buffalo/Erie
County area alone are believed to be much lower.

The influential Democrats, who won’t speak out publicly against Cuomo
for fear of retaliation by the governor and because they believe his
campaign strategy can’t be stopped, predicted de Blasio would fail in
his effort to take on the governor.

“A win for de Blasio on either pre-K or minimum wage would be a huge
loss for Cuomo, and Cuomo’s not going to permit it,’’ said a second
influential Democrat.

One way to hurt Cuomo over his strategy is to cut down on his support in New York City.

If the city support for Cuomo plummeted from the 70th percentile to, say, the 50th percentile, Cuomo would stand up and take notice.

Alas, many Dems in New York City continue to support Cuomo even after he screws the city and its citizens over and over.

7 comments:

Alas, doesn't seem to be one. Which makes it difficult to hold him accountable for his neo-liberal policies. And he knows this - as did Obama in 2012. I still voted against Obama in 2012 anyway. Voted Green.